You go, Chuck Hagel
I just a brief post with a shout-out to Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, who made national news earlier this week when he criticized President Bush's policy on the "war" in Iraq, saying that "stay the course is not a policy." (Chronicle article here.) Regardless of whether you agree with him (though I'm guessing approximately 87% of my readers do), you just gotta respect the guy for breaking with a) his party and b) his president. In these days of tremendous partisanship, every now and then it's nice to see someone prominently break from the established party line, as Bill Frist did earlier this summer. So, kudos to you, Sen. Hagel.
Please note that I put the word "war" in quotation marks. This is not meant to deride the sacrifices of our brave soldiers who have put themselves in harm's way with the deeply-felt desire to make America safer. It's merely to illustrate a point: to be a war, it would have to be formally declared by Congress. So really, the war on terror is actually a "Congressional authorization of the President to use force to combat terror". But then, I guess war is just easier to say.
(Side note: In my perusal of Articles I and II of the U.S. Constitution to investigate Congressional and executive powers regarding war, I noticed something: if we take a quite literal interpretation of the Constitution, the President is only the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy; the Marines and Air Force, not being specified, technically don't have to follow his orders. I suddenly find myself wondering if anyone has ever tried to bring that up before. Not that I'm saying it should be included in an Amendment to the Constitution, or that this quite literal interpretation is correct. I just think it's an interesting point.)
Don't ask me why I started rambling about that.
Song lyric of the day:
"We got rules and maps and guns on our backs
But we still can't just behave ourselves
Even if to save our own lives
So says I: we are a brutal kind"
- the Shins, So Says I
Please note that I put the word "war" in quotation marks. This is not meant to deride the sacrifices of our brave soldiers who have put themselves in harm's way with the deeply-felt desire to make America safer. It's merely to illustrate a point: to be a war, it would have to be formally declared by Congress. So really, the war on terror is actually a "Congressional authorization of the President to use force to combat terror". But then, I guess war is just easier to say.
(Side note: In my perusal of Articles I and II of the U.S. Constitution to investigate Congressional and executive powers regarding war, I noticed something: if we take a quite literal interpretation of the Constitution, the President is only the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy; the Marines and Air Force, not being specified, technically don't have to follow his orders. I suddenly find myself wondering if anyone has ever tried to bring that up before. Not that I'm saying it should be included in an Amendment to the Constitution, or that this quite literal interpretation is correct. I just think it's an interesting point.)
Don't ask me why I started rambling about that.
Song lyric of the day:
"We got rules and maps and guns on our backs
But we still can't just behave ourselves
Even if to save our own lives
So says I: we are a brutal kind"
- the Shins, So Says I
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